Store clerk, patrons help wounded after 3 shot: 'Sometimes you feel it is good. Sometimes you feel it is the worst day ever.'

When at least three people with gunshot wounds walked into Medo Foods in Washington Park on Saturday night, workers and patrons rushed to help them, according to one man’s account of the minutes before first responders arrived.

A Medo Foods employee who did not want his name to be published and who heard shots fired before about 20 people poured into the store from outside, said he first called 911.

Then he grabbed a pair of socks the store sells and made a tourniquet, tying it around a young man’s ankle where he could see clear entry and exit wounds. He propped the leg up to stop it from bleeding. He said he recognized the man from the neighborhood.

“If you look at this community from the outside, you feel it’s all gangbangers and stuff,” said Naser Hajhassan, a retired English teacherand translator whose brother owns the store. “But you look from the inside, you feel there’s human beings, they love each other, they care for each other.”

A white storefront on the west end of a north-facing single-story brick building, Medo Foods advertises a full line of groceries and items including cleaning supplies, tobacco and an ATM. Police said someone shot three teens about 8:35 p.m. Saturday when they were already inside the store at 221 E. 58th St.

An 18-year-old man was shot in the ankle; an 18-year-old woman was shot twice in her leg; and a 19-year-old man was shot in the thigh. They all were in stable condition Saturday night at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

No one is in custody. Area Central detectives are investigating.

“This ain’t the first time this has happened,” the store employee said. He said he can remember at least three other times in the past five or six years when people ran into the store with gunshot wounds.

Chicago Tribune archives reflect prior shootings in the 200 block of East 58th Street. In July 2014, a 37-year-old woman was shot in the back in the middle of the afternoon.

In March 2015, someone in a van driving by shot a 43-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man who were standing on the sidewalk.

In January, a 22-year-old man was walking in the block when he heard gunfire and realized he’d been hit.

The employee said he’s also witnessed shootings at other stores he’s worked at throughout Chicago. Though some areas are hit harder than others, violence affects people everywhere in the city, he said.

“People that don’t see it don’t pay attention,” he said.

The Hajhassans drove straight to the store when they heard of the shooting Saturday.

A vacant lot lies west of the building, and across 58th Street to the north, the entire block is empty, covered in patches of grass and weeds.

Hajhassan said new housing planned for the area gives him hope more people will move in and invest in the community, improving conditions for the people who live and work there.

“Sometimes you feel it is good,” Hajhassan said. “Sometimes you feel it is the worst day ever. In summer it is worse.”